ERIC Tutorial

 

Step 1:

Decide upon your specific search topic. For example, you may be searching for articles on parent participation. Just typing "parent" in a database search may result in too much information. Are you looking for parent participation of reading? Are you looking for parent participation for a particular region (i.e. Kentucky, Mid-Atlantic)? Try to pinpoint what you are looking for. If you do not find enough information, you can always broaden the topic.

Step 2:

If you are not finding enough material, you may consider a search using synonyms or related subject headings. In the above example, possible synonyms of parents include adoptive parents, biological parents, disabled parents, etc. The ERIC Thesaurus is a valuable resource to find synonyms or subject headings particular to the education field. ERIC Thesaurus is located at the top right side on the main page of the ERIC website.

 

Step 3:

 

Select a database. There is considerable overlap in the periodicals that are indexed in various databases, but there are also some unique titles in each database. Do not give up if you find little or no information using just one database. Simply try another.

 

There are two ways to search ERIC:

 

• ERIC website
• Kentucky Virtual Library website

 

http://www.eric.ed.gov/

 

ERIC is the digital library of education-related resources, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education. The collection consists journal and non-journal literature selected from ERIC from 1966 - 2003. ERIC includes more than 1.3 million records and more than 323,000 articles in full text.

 

Citations from ERIC with EJ accession numbers are journal articles and can be located at Sullivan University by looking for the journal name in TLC Catalog Periodical Search or on the Electronic Journals page.

 

Citations from ERIC with ED accession numbers are ERIC documents. Those may be available on microfilm located on the 2nd floor of the University of Louisville. About 75% of the ERIC documents from 1993 to the present are also available online from ERIC. Follow the "FullText" links within the document record to access.

 

Searching ERIC:

 

• Go to ERIC website
• Click on ERIC Search located on the top right toolbar of the main page.
• The next screen offers a Basic Search or Advanced Search
• Click Advanced Search link
  • You are given three search fields to use. You may use one or all three.
  • If you know what Journal you want to search, type the journal name (i.e. Child Care Information Exchange) in the first open text box.
  • Change the drop-down menu of Search For to Journal Name. Click SEARCH.
  • To search by Subject/keyword, type your subject/topic in the next open field.
  • Change the drop-down menu of Search For to Keyword. Click SEARCH.
  • To search by Year, input the year/s within the Publication Date fields.
  • You may narrow your search by inputting journal name, keyword/subject simultaneously as well as include author or title information if known.
  • You may expand your search by omitting one or more of the above search criteria.

 

Searching Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL)

 

• Go to Sullivan University Library Home Page.
• Click on Articles and E-Books from the left navigation. 
• Click on Login to Databases.
• If you are off-campus, log in the site using the instructions below the link.
•  You will be directed to several database options. Click EBSCOhost.
•  The main page of EBSCOhost will offer you multiple databases to choose. Select the ERIC database from the list.
•  EBSCOhost offers a publication search. Click on the top tab marked Advanced/Publication.
  •  If you know what journal you want to search, type the journal name (i.e. Zero to Three) in Browse.
  •  You may select more than one journal to search for your subject/keyword.
  •  Select Search. EBSCOhost will then return to a screen noting the Journal Name you selected plus two other searching fields.
  •  If you want to search a particular year of a journal, type in the year (i.e. 2012) and change the default field to DT Date of Publication.
  •  You may narrow your search by inputting journal name, year and keyword/subject simultaneously as well as include author or title information.
  •  You may expand your search by omitting one or more of the above search criteria.

 

Created by Mimi O'Malley in February 2005. Revised in March 2012 by Cara Marco.